Court Sentences Colombian Drug Smuggler Caught with 1,550 Kilograms of Cocaine

MOBILE, AL – A Colombian national was sentenced on July 17, 2024 to 65 months in prison for smuggling 1,550 kilograms of cocaine in the eastern Pacific Ocean. Edgar Parades Sanchez, pled guilty to the drug smuggling offense.

Documents filed with the court in connection with his guilty plea established that on November 7, 2023 while on routine patrol in the eastern Pacific Ocean, a marine patrol aircraft located a target of interest Go Fast Vessel (GFV) approximately 105 nautical miles south of Panama. United States Coast Guard Cutter Waesche was patrolling nearby and diverted to intercept the vessel. 

The cutter Waesche launched its small boats and a helicopter to investigate. When the helicopter arrived on scene, the vessel went dead in the water. The small boats launched from cutter arrived on the scene and a team began boarding the GFV. The boarding team encountered four people on board the vessel, including Edgar Parades Sanchez. The GFV had no physical flag flown, no homeport on the hull, no registration numbers on the hull and no name on the hull. The master of the vessel made a claim of Costa Rican nationality for the vessel. The country of Costa Rica was contacted and Costa Rica could neither confirm nor deny the nationality of the vessel. The vessel was thus considered a Vessel Without Nationality under United States law.

The four people on board the vessel and the cocaine found on the GFV were removed to the USCG Cutter Waesche. The vessel was sunk by the Coast Guard due to it being a hazard to navigation due to its distance from land, the fact that there were no suitable tow points, no navigational lights, and there was excessive fuel onboard. The final at sea weight of the cocaine was 1,550 kilograms. The wholesale value of the cocaine seized in this case is conservatively valued at approximately 46 million dollars.  

The three people on board the GFV with Sanchez were Abelardo Castellon, Jorge Escobar Mejia and Kainor Antoinio Nicolas Castellon. The three other drug smugglers were previously sentenced by the court.   
      
The case was investigated by the United States Coast Guard, and the Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney George F. May.